Ben Carson on the Issues

Ben Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon, announced Sunday that he is running for the Republican presidential nomination. A Fox News commentator, he is a fierce critic of President Obama’s health care law, calling it “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.” Here is where he stands on some of the biggest issues of the 2016 campaign.

Foreign Policy

Mr. Carson has acknowledged being something of a novice on foreign affairs, saying in separate interviews in March, “I’m in the process of acquiring a lot of information” and “there’s a lot of material to learn.”

He has expressed sympathy for the Israeli settlement movement — the Obama administration has opposed the expansion of settlements — and has suggested that if the Palestinians want a state, neighboring nations like Egypt should provide the land. He has accused the Obama administration of abandoning Israel.

He supports giving arms to Ukraine to fight Russian-backed rebels, and suggested last month that the Baltic States should “get involved in NATO.” (They are already members.)

Health Care

Mr. Carson has proposed an alternative to the Affordable Care Act under which most people would pay most of their medical bills through health savings accounts. He would eliminate Medicare and Medicaid, with the government making contributions to the health accounts of lower-income people. Under his plan, catastrophic care insurance would pay for extremely expensive treatments like long-term cancer care.

Immigration

Mr. Carson has criticized Mr. Obama’s executive actions shielding millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. “Once illegals have legal status, it will be difficult to deny them any of the multitudinous entitlements that are freely distributed throughout our society,” he wrote last year in The Washington Times. But Mr. Carson would allow people already in the United States illegally to register as guest workers, after which they could seek permanent status.

Climate Change

Mr. Carson has warned against government regulations to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, writing: “Responsible human beings must be concerned about our surroundings and what we will pass on to future generations. However, to use climate change as an excuse not to develop our God-given resources makes little sense.”

Same-Sex Marriage

Mr. Carson opposes same-sex marriage. He caused a stir in 2013 when he said in an interview that marriage was “a well-established, fundamental pillar of society, and no group, be they gays, be they Nambla, be they people who believe in bestiality — it doesn’t matter what they are, they don’t get to change the definition.” Nambla is the North American Man/Boy Love Association. He later apologized for those remarks.

But he has said he is open to some form of legal recognition of two consenting adults to allow for “hospital visitation rights, property rights and so on without tampering with the definition of marriage.”

The Economy

Mr. Carson has expressed support for a flat tax on all Americans, not to exceed 15 percent, using the supply-side argument that lower tax rates would help the economy and ultimately generate higher tax revenues. He says a flat tax would eliminate loopholes and cheating, and he has called for eliminating the Internal Revenue Service.

He also believes that the age of eligibility for receiving Social Security benefits should gradually be raised because people are living longer, straining the solvency of the program.